Coral only no fish

[DonW]

I know this sounds odd. We have had many discussions on feeding SPS. Most everyone agree's that off the shelf foods are not sps food. Assuming you had no fish. How would you feed your sps?
Maybe you had just one or two fish in a good sized system. Are the few flakes or whater you feed going to be enough for a bunch of sps.

Don

 

[loohunter]

i would guess no but really have no idea so im along for the ride

 

[kevinpo]

I have a 90 gal SPS/LPS only tank and feed a couple of times a week Cyclopeeze and no other food. I maintain calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[steve-s]

Kevin, which version do you use?

http://www.cyclop-eeze.com/online_store.php

Cheers
Steve

 

[kevinpo]

Hi Steve,
I use the freezer bars. I use it for fish too. I get a good feeding response from the smaller species of Anthias that can be hard to get started on prepared foods.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[ethanriley]

Kev,

Seeing that I am using natural salt water do I have to feed at all? The one fish I have seems to do fine on the algae in the tank. Will my SPS get enough from the organisms coming in with the water change?

 

[kevinpo]

Seeing that I am using natural salt water do I have to feed at all?

If we are just talking about SPS corals then I would not worry about feeding additional foods as long as the water changes are frequent enough (once a week of 10% or so should be plenty). Lighting intensity and spectrum also play an important role in feeding the corals zooxathellae which in turn provide nutrition to the corals.
I would think that your microfauna diversity would be very large. I haven't used tropical natural saltwater to see what shows up (but I would sure like to play around with it )

Most LPS corals grow best when additional meaty foods are given regardless of lighting. They can even do well under very low lighting conditions when fed once or twice a week.

Regards,
Kevin